A public hospital during a severe recession. Pardon me while I vomit. And health care costs won't increase. Yeah right. Someone, somewhere is going to pay for this. There is just no end to it.

Blech. My health insurance went up $110 a month this year. I'm sure that helps fund their raises.

And my co-pay's have double from 15 to 30 dollars. And these guys aren't even the doctors that are taking care of us.

Couple this with the article on public school administrators pay increases and we start to figure out who the real suckers are in all this--we are, the taxpayers.
Web Link

I'd like to see every administrator at the school district office spend at least one full day in the classroom each year (wow, wouldn't THAT be asking a lot) and I'd like to see every one of these 12 hospital administrators spend a full day doing patient care in their hospital.

I just don't understand how the work that school district and hospital administrators do is worth several times more than the people who do the actual teaching and patient care. My apologies to anyone in management, but I just don't get it. A superintendent may oversee a district of 4,500 students and several hundred employees, but do teachers who manage between 20 to 150 students every day, are they really worth that much less? $200K for one and $50K for the other?

So should El Camino buy up more hospitals so their executives' salaries can continue to increase?

Unfortunately,, parent, none of the hospital administrators at El Camino, except one who is an actual MD, could care for patients. And I don;t believe the MV superintendent has a credential to teach elementary school either. They're just the overpaid experts feeding at the public trough.

The cost of imy insurance and prescriptions have reached an intolerable price.l have stopped taking many. I hope the executives with excellent health coverage enjoy their money.

While the rest of us suffer from the economy, job loss, and out of control health insurance cost - ECH's Board approves salary increases that are 2 -3 times the cost of living index. The Board rewards hospital administrators who just keep spending taxpayer dollars rather than figuring out how to control costs. They spent over $100 million for a 38 bed hospital in Los Gatos - and then claim they need bigger salaries to reward them for a 12% larger operation - even though they publicly state Los Gatos is nothing more than a 'wing' of the existing hospital. They tell taxpayers they don't need to break out the $100 million acquisition in future financial reporting. When will the ECH Board exhibit leadership in fixing our healthcare crisis and stop lining the pockets of ECH executives with taxpayer dollars?

What is truly a crime in all of this is that we, the taxpayers, voted a few years back to PAY for the reconstruction of El Camino Hospital by floating a $130 million bond on their behalf. This is coming out of our wallets on an annual basis when we pay our property taxes. Prior to the purchase of the Los Gatos facility, I wrote a letter to the editor of a local paper asking the ECH Board to PAY BACK the bonds for the taxpayers if they had all this money in the bank! Why should we be on the hook for this? We are the ones fighting for our jobs, facing service cuts at the state and local level, dealing with crumbling schools, and they roll in the dough while we continue to pay hundreds of dollars per year to fund those bonds which built their fancy digs, freeing up money to buy the Los Gatos "wing", and now give themselves fat pay increases. Folks, we brought this on ourselves by voting "yes" on the bond in the first place. I voted no to begin with, seeing that they ran a fancy, well-funded campaign promising puppies and roses for everyone, even though many patients aren't even eligible for care at ECH. I thought it was a dishonest campaign and they were overreaching. Now we know just how much!!!

I agree with paying executives adequately but these salaries and bonuses are too much! I didn't campaign and vote for the bond meaasure to purchase another hospital and pay executives outrageous salaries, which only increases my medical bill at a time I can least afford it!

REGARDLESS OF THE REASONS FOR THE NEXT BOND MEASURE, VOTE NO!!!

Do you suppose it is an unintentional coincidence, or is it deliberately planned, that the article on overpaid hospital administrators appears in the Voice RIGHT NEXT TO an article about the rise in the number of homeless people in the area?

Whine, whine. 100% of the comments above seem to be in that category. Well, they can do as they please, that's for sure. AND, we gave them that power.

Having attended the meeting where all of this happened AND being the only member of the public to do so, I am really frustrated. These folks act with impunity, buying the money-loser in Los Gatos, saying it is only like another "wing" on El Camino and THEN saying they need more pay because they are running two hospitals.

OK, if you want them to continue, sit back.

If you want to send a message, go to a board meeting once in awhile, vote against all incumbents ...how about an effort to dissolve the tax district?! Hey, they have plenty of reserves and maintain that not one cent came from paying less-than-market rates on their publically-funded bonds. So, why not get out from under this albatross?! Roll up the tax district and toss it away. Let them go their own way, unencumbered by the nagging, small-minded, unknowing taxpayers.

Otherwise, enjoy paying the costs of the "world’s best healthcare SYSTEM", NOT.

PS: Our great SYSTEM costs too much - 1/6 of the economy and rising. To pay execs any more than the rate of inflation (healthcare excluded) only exacerbates the problem.

PPS: Where is the Press on this rip off?! I haven't seen a single editorial taking these folks to task ...and don't expect to - too many full-page, color ads from El Camino Hospital, don't you think?!

It always happens this way..the public focuses the anger and frustration on the executives involved INSTEAD of holding their representative board members accountable for their decisions! "Annoyed meeting goer" has it quite right-go to meetings and take your friends and neighbors with you. Board members and executives have become quite a mutual admiration society- at taxpayer expense. Board members need to remember that they have a duty to their community-not the overpaid administrators that convince them that they "must" approve ridiculous salaries.

What added value do we get for this pay increase?
Are these administrators working longer hours?
Are they doing more work to actually serve the community?
Just what are we getting for our money?

Annoyed is right - more people need to attend meetings - and read the agenda Before the Meetings. Why didn't Voice make it clear that this was going to come up ???

Let me see - got to go back and find where a 'spokesperson' said no District funds would be used to support Los Gatos expansion, isn't management paid by tax funds. SURELY the Los Gatos facility is not generating $$ profits yet to fund the management raises.

If Los Gatos facility WAS increasing profits for the district - I COULD see a management limited time bonus based on this effect. This is obviously NOT the case,

Come on already... Many people are hanging on to their jobs and others out of work. Let's not do any more increases until the city is making money again! What is going on here with fiscal responsibility???

While any of the execs could make more money in the private sector I would agree they should have thought about foregoing a raise this year given the taxpayer assisted stability of their employment compared to those of us who have lost our profit sharing, bonuses and are day to day on whether we are next on the layoff list. They do a good job running that place, the financials are in good shape and as hospitals go it's one of the best...but maybe a sign of compassion to the rest of us would be to not take a raise this year, you're right I should have gone to the meeting to suggest.

SHAME ON THESE IVORY TOWER EMPLOYEES! WE, THE EMPLOYEES IN THE OTHER TOWER, WORK HARD AND GIVE THE BEST CARE-SO THE ADMINISTRATION CAN CROW ABOUT ALL THE CUDOOS AND GET THE RAISES AND WE ARE TOLD THAT WHAT WE MAKE IS IN LINE WITH OTHER HOSPITALS. I HOPE WE DON'T MAKE MAGNET STATUS THIS YR. THE ADMINISTRATION DOESN'T DESERVE THE HONOR.